When Kleiner Perkins first offered Ellen Pao a job, she turned it down

Ellen Pao took the stand Monday morning in
her sex discrimination trial against venture capital firm
Kleiner Perkins, and she revealed that she actually turned down
the first job offer she got from the firm.

Pao is seeking $16 million in damages from Kleiner
and alleges she was retaliated against after having an affair
with another partner at the firm. Kleiner is known as
one of the most successful venture capital firms in Silicon
Valley.

In 2005, Pao applied for a role as partner John Doerr's chief of
staff. She was eventually offered the position but turned it
down.

"I had conversations with
Juliet [de Baubigny] and John [Doerr] and decided ultimately that
the role seemed too junior," Pao said during her testimony
Monday.

By the time of her offer, Pao
had already graduated from Princeton, as well as Harvard Law
School and Harvard Business School. While at graduate school she worked
at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, a prestigious New York law
firm, as well as Bain & Company, a top consulting company
made famous during Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential
campaign.

Pao had worked at a number of
companies before joining Kleiner, including BEA Systems, a
company that sold software to other businesses. Pao said she was
be responsible for "90-95%" of the company's revenues while she
worked there as head of business development.

Pao was told that becoming John Doerr's chief of staff would
likely lead to an operating role down the road.

"I'd been running biz dev at a
large public company," said Pao. "I told Juliet I didn't want to pursue the
offer."

Despite her initial reluctance, Kleiner continued to pursue Pao's
employment.

"John [Doerr] changed the role so it would be more senior,
so there would be a new opportunity for me at the end of the role
where I could have an investing opportunity," said Pao.

Pao negotiated a starting salary of $220,000, plus a large
bonus and other incentives before joining Kleiner in June
2005.

"We all look forward to you contributing lots to
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and benefit from doing so,"
said her offer letter from Doerr.